This invention relates to detergent compounds and compositions and, in particular, to nonionic surfactants which are glyceryl ethers of ethoxylated compounds.
Conventional detergent compositions perform well in most situations but they do tend to be less effective in the removal of greasy and oily materials from fabrics than the consumer desires. This problem is particularly pronounced with certain of the newer synthetic fabrics and is also especially serious in the case of hydrocarbon-based oils such as used motor oil. There is therefore a need to provide surfactants which offer particular benefit in the area of grease and oil removal and which can form the basis of detergent compositions having improved performance in this area.
It has already been recognized that nonionic surfactants can offer some improvements in this area, and the incorporation of surfactants such as ethoxylated alcohols into detergent compositions does provide some benefit in oily stain removal. Unfortunately, this benefit does not extend equally to a wide spectrum of fabric/oily stain combinations and, in particular, even the best of the currently known oil-removing surfactants shows poorer performance on fabrics stained with used motor oil and relatively poorer performance on the removal of hydrocarbon oil stains on cotton when compared with triglyceride stains on cotton.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a surfactant compound which is particularly effective at removing oily stains, especially stains comprising hydrocarbon oil.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide detergent compositions incorporating the above mentioned surfactant material.